Murder, rape charges in NY double slaying

Posted
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 10:09 pm

Wednesday April 24, 2013

ROTTERDAM, N.Y. (AP) -- A 28-year-old man accused of killing a woman and her 23-year-old daughter in their Albany-area home has been indicted on murder, rape and other charges, authorities said Tuesday.

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said Brice Rivenburgh also faces arson and evidence tampering charges for trying to cover up the slayings of 52-year-old Tammy McCormack and her daughter, Jessica McCormack.

Their bodies were found when Tammy McCormack’s son went to their Rotterdam home because she didn’t show up for work on April 10. The women were found dead in their bedrooms.

Carney said Rivenburgh and Jessica McCormack had an "on again, off again" relationship for a couple of years, but recently had a falling out.

Rivenburgh raped the young woman and set fire to her bed, Carney said.

According to the indictment, Rivenburgh went to the house sometime before 2:30 a.m., attacked and killed the women and stole a television set. He returned to the house around 6 a.m., took some food and then drove to a place nearby where he set fire to the shirt he’d been wearing and an unspecified document with his name on it, Carney said.

Rivenburgh went back to the house a third time at about 10:15 a.m., Carney said, setting Jessica McCormack’s bedding on fire just minutes before her brother arrived. Emergency crews put out that fire.

Carney said Rivenburgh also tried to divert suspicion by texting Jessica McCormack twice after he killed her, asking if she wanted to "hang out" and if she was "still mad at me."

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